Welcome To The New Isn’t That Charming!

To say I’m excited to publish this announcement post is an understatement.

You know those projects that have been in the works for so long that there’s almost a sense of sadness when it’s over? Sadness, relief, excitement, and a healthy dose of nerves because “OMG it’s officially being put into the world.” That’s how I feel right now with the new site redesign of Isn’t That Charming.

This site redesign has been nearly a year in the making and has been quite the labor of love. Why so long, you ask? Doug and I were crazy enough to tackle this beast ourselves. No developers. No coders. Just us, WordPress, and a lot of tinkering. I truly couldn’t have done it without Doug, who encouraged me that “We can totally do this” when I felt defeated after getting quotes back from developers that were way above what I could pay as a budding small business owner. (Full post coming soon on how we did it, because honestly, you can totally do it too!)

Long story short: It’s done. We did it. And I’m so darn proud of the end result.

Beyond WordPress tinkering and learning how to bring a site to life, the real reason this all took so long is that, for me, this redesign is so much more than an aesthetic facelift. It’s a fresh declaration of intentions. A renewed focus; an introduction to the woman I am now instead of the woman (often, girl) that I was ages ago when I first created this space.

In a lot of ways, this redesign was an exercise of self discovery. What do I want to put into the world? What do I want to stand for? What’s my vision for this space, what are my goals, who do I want to talk to, and how should content best be brought to life?

Here’s the new Isn’t That Charming in a nutshell.

My mission for this site is to celebrate the creativity + charm found in every day.

I believe in living life as a verb – something you do and create – and I believe that embracing this notion leads to a life filled with charm. This means something different for everyone, but for me, it translates to adorning with classic style and beauty, cultivating personal wellness and mindfulness, exploring the great big world, nesting in our home, mothering my family, and creating a space here that’s filled with inspiration, authentic conversation and daily delights.

The vision for Isn’t That Charming is to be a bright spot in your day. I hope that each visit brings content that celebrates little wins while inspiring you to seek, find and create the charm in your every day.

And, here’s my rationale – the site’s manifesto – for it all.

Side note: Does anyone remember when I launched Wandeleur ages ago? Though it was short lived, I loved that site and all it stood for. As I was pulling together this new direction, I kept going back to some of the elements we created over there. In many ways, I think of my new direction here as a merriment of this site with many of the notions that Wandeleur was!

I hope you’ll look forward to:

Life + style content that continually inspires you to create the charm in your every day.

Important topics addressed, such as sustainability, that I’d like to challenge myself to embrace more. I’m excited to take you along on my journey of learning and growing!

A new series launching in October that’s all about highlighting incredible women, their charm, and practical advice from their journeys to success.

Lastly, there are a few people I need to thank, as they were monumental in this project.

Doug for countless hours helping me tweak and pull together this site. Also, for being the best brainstormer and partner on earth. His patience with my sometimes-scatterbrain and ability to help me bring moments of “I HAVE THE BEST IDEA!” to life is so appreciated.

Kelsey for being the best partner in crime ever, helping to brainstorm topic ideas/content, and being an amazing sounding board for ideas.

Emma Segovia for helping to pull together Isn’t That Charming’s new logo and full brand identity/design book. She and her team are crazy talented. She just recently left her job to tackle doing consulting and design work full time! If you have design needs, I can’t recommend her enough.

Nine Twenty Productions — Ben Ross — for helping to pull together the launch video. I was looking for something that embodied the spirit of this site and he completely nailed it. (He also put together this cool video for my Xfinity partnership!) Another person I can’t recommend enough, particularly for video needs!

Sarah for helping to pull together my full brand identity brief, including finalizing things like my mission and vision. Her inputs were invaluable!

 Thank you, a million times over, for reading Isn’t That Charming. I hope you find this space to be as delightful as it is to create, and return on the daily as our team continues to bring this new site vision to life!